'Don't forget to save some runs for April' - James Neesham advices his KXIP skipper KL Rahul

In the end, the writing was always on the wall. Given the team-selections, lack of discipline and the lack of runs and wickets by their two premier players- Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah- coupled by the regaining of confidence by the hosts after back-to-back wins in Hamilton and Auckland, Team India were all always headed for a whitewash.

And, it happen that way that Colin de Grandhomme [58* off 28 balls], Tom Latham [32* off 34 balls] late blitz propelled New Zealand to a commanding five-wicket win and to a historic 3-0 whitewash as they became the first team to beat India in every ODI of a bilateral series since 1988-89.

Batting first, India’s top-order woes continued as Mayank Agarwal [1] and Virat Kohli [9] could only muster 10 runs between them before getting dismissed within the first seven overs. Prithvi Shaw [40 off 42 balls] once again was at his belligerent best before his innings was cut short with an unfortunate run-out.

The biggest positive for India in this series has been the way Shreyas Iyer [217 runs at 72.33] and KL Rahul [204 runs at 102] have played at No.4 and 5 in the middle-order- India’s long-standing nemesis. While Iyer got a hundred and Rahul stroked his way to a half-century in Hamilton, the roles were duly reversed at the Bay Oval.

KL Rahul extended his purple patch and dished out yet another innings- full of sumptuous strokes- at the Bay Oval; his KXIP team-mate James Neesham has some advice for him

The right-hander racked up his fourth ODI hundred during his 113-ball 112 with the help of nine fours and two sixes. During his innings, Rahul was involved in banter with all-rounder Jimmy Neesham. Neesham is at the peak of his powers when it comes to his social media game and the all-rounder displayed it yet again when he captioned the image of him and Raghul engaged in banter as ‘Paper, scissors, rock?’

Paper, scissors, rock? 😂 pic.twitter.com/PFrK8ZcF9k

— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) February 11, 2020

One of the users went on to ask Neesham as to who was sledging whom in the picture. But Neesham clarified that it was just banter and no line was crossed.

Just a bit of banter. Nobody crossed the line 😂 https://t.co/g5HmZodfYH

— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) February 11, 2020

Neesham will be playing under KL Rahul in the upcoming Indian Premier League season after he was bought by Kings XI Punjab for Rs 20 Lakh in the 2020 auctions held in December. And, the all-rounder made it a point to remind KL to save runs for April.

Don’t forget to save some runs for April aye @klrahul11 ? 👏

— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) February 11, 2020